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JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay $410 million on Tuesday to settle accusations by U.S. energy regulators that it manipulated electricity prices.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the bank used improper bidding strategies to squeeze excessive payments from the agencies that run the power grids in California and the Midwest. The improper conduct occurred between September 2010 and November 2012, FERC said.

JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank, is paying a civil penalty of $285 million and returning $125 million in allegedly improper profits.

FERC said its investigation had found improper trading practices were used at Houston-based JPMorgan Ventures Energy Corp.

Chase is worth 2.509 trillion so this fine is equivalent to most people here getting a parking ticket.

Perhaps. Under the same token, it's also likely a large enough fine to bankrupt the small division or desk which was handling this - as it should IMO. Chances are, I'd bet there was less than a few dozen misguided traders and managers overseeing this. The fine is large enough to provide a real financial punishment for the division and modest earnings hit for the lack of oversight by the umbrella company - IMO.

They aren't owned by one person like the parked car most likely is, poor and irrelevant comparison.

OK, let's look at it another way if you want to.

Chase has 119 million visa accounts. So this fine is about $3.44 per account.

However, as a function of profit and using the same variables I used to calculate the parking ticket claim, it would be equivalent to most people here paying a fine of $6600.

So I will concede that my methodology was less than concrete though not completely irrelevant. The huge difference of course is that Chase ccan pass along the fine to its customers and withhold it from its dividends, and we can't.

PS edit : We have a strong point of disagreement over the definition of "profit". I use a hot dog stand rule revenue - cost = profit. Chase and every other major corporation only consider profit that which can't possibly be called anything else.

So I will concede that my methodology was less than concrete though not completely irrelevant. The huge difference of course is that Chase ccan pass along the fine to its customers and withhold it from its dividends, and we can't.